Page 1 of Claiming Demons

ANAIS

Was this a dream?

It was late, and I’d had the most incredible sex with all my guys, then they’d pampered me and put me to bed. And now, here I was with Harmonia, standing in the middle of one of the main living areas in Grey’s apartment, and she’d just said she knew who my mother was.

This had to be a dream.

I reached out and touched Harmonia’s Mediterranean-tanned cheek. “You feel real.”

“I… what?” She frowned, then rolled her eyes at me. “Ana, this isn’t a dream. That theory I was looking into… this is it. It just took me a little longer than expected to find what I was looking for.”

Right, she’d said she was looking into something.

But… my mother?

I blinked… and suddenly I needed to sit down.

I staggered toward a couch near the fireplace and Harmonia helped me to get there. She sat beside me, looking intent, but she waited before saying anything, perhaps looking for some signal from me, some indication that I was ready to hear about my birth mother.

Except I couldn’t get any words out and only managed to nod, indicating that I was as good as I was going to get for this information.

“There are many goddesses out there, but not many with the slew of aspects that you possess,” she said, keeping her gaze locked with mine. “As soon as you manifested war, that drastically reduced the options. There aren’t many goddesses of sex and war, and I assumed both of those were aspects from your mother, but then… that’s where the research came in.”

My thoughts whirled, despite Harmonia’s gaze keeping me steady.

She knew who my mother was.

Sheknewwho my mother was.

“It was your aspect of healing which was confusing,” she continued as if she couldn’t feel the tangle of emotions roaring through me like I knew she could. “It didn’t match up with the others. So, once I pulled that out of the mix and presumed that healing had come from your father… that led me to my theory. Which proved to be correct.”

I waited, holding my breath as Harmonia let that sink in.

But, of course, it couldn’t, because she. Knew. Who. My. Mother. Was.

“I’m almost certain your mother was Inanna,” she finished, since I’d just continued to stare at her blankly.

Inanna.

My mother was Inanna.

Who the hell was Inanna? I’d never heard of her. Of course, I hadn’t heard of a lot of gods and goddesses, but still… the revelation I’d hoped for hadn’t arrived. I was still confused.

“Who is she?” I asked.

Then I caught onto what she’d said a moment ago: your motherwasInanna. As in past tense. As in… dead?

I had no idea how I felt about that, either.

“Whowasshe?” I forced out.

“One of the first and most powerful goddesses from the ancient Sumerian pantheon. Her aspects were love, beauty, sex, fertility, war, and law.”

Then realization hit me. “Law!” I blurted out. Of course! “That’s what Reia has!”

The aspect that I hadn’t been able to name, that had felt related to war, was law. Fighting for justice was a battle, much like war.

“Most likely,” Harmonia replied with a gentle nod.

---